October 29th

October 29th, 2005 Southern Missouri District Ranger of the Year Event! 18 boys and young men and some 30 plus staff go to Rolla, Missouri to hold or District ROTY Event. This overnight event allowed the Rangers to show just what they have been learning this past year in Royal Rangers. The evaluation starts with written testing over Bible and Handbook and 3 subjects the boys pick. Then it moves to Handbook Skills and Bible Skills then on to a Oral Interview to inspire the boy to set objectives as well as review just what he has done in the past year. Then Devotion, snack and lights out at 11:00 pm... (I heard some very large varmits up and running around above us on the 2nd floor -same place the boys were sleeping- around midnight)

Commander Barnhouse reviewed the Power Points the boys had for their speeches that would be held saturday morning and then headed off to Super Center to purchase a USB floppy drive after midnight. Then in the morning we went out on the web to download the viewer for the latest and greatest presentations that we had not heard of yet..."READY" for anything!

After a hearty breakfast of pancakes and sasuage by Commander Bix and Commander Hughes and others. We went right back at it. Evaluating, Firecraft, Naturestudy, Fire Arms, Camping Safety and a list of some 10 more skill stations.

Everyone pulled their weight and sent those scores in to the head nerd..."thats me" the one that isn't in a picture...GRIN!

While I plunked in scores the normal rift raft of commanders trotted by to stop in and visit and offer their scores to the hungry program that consumes and proccesses hundreds of bits of data all the while I looked very busy and kept a watchfull eye on Commander Rick to double check he hadn't doubled my workload like any good coordinator would!

Alas. It's certificate time. After I printed off the certificates and had Jerry M. sign them... it was discovered the date and event name was from our sectional ROTY year event....(EVEN BIGGER GRIN) I quickly pointed both hands to only find out I had a 6 fingers pointing back at me.... ok... got that fixed here is the latest and greatest certificates.....

Pictures and we are heading home!

It was a grand time and a real blessing to see our boys are learning the fine things of God and man. Here is the pictures.